New York Sen. Charles Schumer is attending the twice-delayed immigration meeting at the White House this afternoon, and gave a speech yesterday on his intentions. As chair of the Senate Judiciary’s immigration subcommittee, he is taking over for Sen. Ted Kennedy as the main proponent of an immigration overhaul.
This time, he emphasized, Democrats will try harder to convince Republicans that they are “serious about enforcement.” You can already tell by the language he’s using, and his listing of seven principles starting with, “illegal immigration is wrong, and a primary goal of comprehensive immigration reform must be to dramatically curtail future illegal immigration.” (The quotations come from his prepared remarks for a Migration Policy Institute event in D.C. yesterday.)
The idea of legalizing undocumented immigrants is presented not as a giveaway, or a jumping-through-hoops, but a crackdown:
All illegal aliens present in the United States on the date of enactment of our bill must quickly register their presence with the United States Government — and submit to a rigorous process of converting to legal status and earning a path to citizenship — or face imminent deportation.
And he apparently will try to get people not to use the phrase “undocumented workers,” because it sounds weak.
When we use phrases like ‘undocumented workers,’ we convey a message to the American people that their Government is not serious about combating illegal immigration, which the American people overwhelmingly oppose.
The newsiest element of his remarks is the biometric employer verification system. It is a stepped up version of E-Verify, which lets employers check a person’s immigration status using Social Security numbers. That system is considered severely limited because it can’t detect someone who is using someone else’s SSN. Schumer said the subcommittee will hash through different proposals for a new system during a hearing in July.
The speculation will continue about whether Congress will deal with a bill this year, and whether it has to be this year in order to pass during Obama’s term. The latest came from Rahm Emmanuel, who said today that a comprehensive bill still lacked the necessary number of votes, reports the Washington Post. He said immigration was unlikely to pass this year, but that it was important to start the effort this year.
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